Yayoi Kambara
Yayoi Kambara started her career as a professional dancer and currently directs and produces multimedia performance works, including film and XR. Kambara also directs chamber operas and is a co-interrogator of Dancing Around Race. Additionally, she was a company member with ODC/Dance from 2003 to 2015.
After she retired from full-time dance performance, she finished the 4th APAP Leadership Fellows Program Cohort and led a year-long community engagement residency for Bridge Live Arts. Aesthetic Shift was an exchange dedicated to interrogating and analyzing the overlap between equity values, creative practices, and organizations. This research inspires her to lead her creative practices as social practice. Her dance project IKKAI means once: a transplanted pilgrimage, commissioned by the San Jose Japanese American Citizens League, premiered in 2023. IKKAI shares the experiences of those illegally incarcerated during World War II and dares to dream of a collective future where this kind of injustice will never happen again. She is producing and creating 二度と(NI DO TO): an XR pilgrimage, sharing the choreographic research for IKKAI and celebrating the resilience of Japanese Americans. Audiences learn Obon dance by Nobuko Miyamoto as an interactive hologram, view a 360 film created at Manzanar, hear poetry from a Janice Mirikitani Zoltar-type machine and reflect on current/future solidarities with communities facing xenophobic policies. 二度と is co-commissioned by Georgia Tech Arts and San Jose Japanese American Museum and premieres in September 2023.